AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
President Donald Trump would have found a lot to like about the Treasury secretary Scott Bessent but he also complained privately about his cabinet’s rough streak, bombshell claims Wall Street Journal investigation into the cabinet member’s tenure.
Trump summed up their relationship at an April event in Nevada, telling the crowd that he had “created a monster” in Bessent.
The line, however, takes on a different appearance in view of The Journal story, which shows Bessent presiding over an extremely pressured Treasury Department while clashing with senior officials, lashing out at his aides and repeatedly finding himself at the center of explosive clashes.
Bessent disputed some of the incidents described by The Review But the report, based on interviews with current and former officials and others close to the episodes, is not short of striking details.
Here are five of the craziest:
Trump takes credit for creating ‘a monster’
Trump reportedly came to appreciate Bessent’s abilities, but he also described his Treasury secretary as difficult, while taking some of the credit for Bessent’s newfound notoriety:
The president told his advisers that he thought Bessent was good at calming markets, and he encouraged him to help find a way to lower interest rates. But at an event in Nevada in April, Trump called Bessent difficult and took credit for making the Treasury secretary a “big star.”
“I created a monster,” Trump joked.
The explosion of Bessent’s Treasury against his own deputy
One of the most striking scenes described in the report occurred after Trump asked Bessent to investigate allegations of fraud involving Minnesota’s Somali community.
Bessent would have believed John HurleyUndersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, did not act quickly enough.
According to The Review:
President Trump had just asked his Treasury secretary to investigate allegations of fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community — and Bessent thought one of his top deputies was dragging his feet.
At a January meeting at the Treasury Department, Bessent confronted John Hurley, the agency’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, shouting at him in front of his aides and hurling insults. Bessent shouted so loudly that staff working nearby could hear him, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
A few weeks later, Bessent discussed with his aides the idea of finding Hurley, who had been Senate-confirmed for his position, a job outside the department, the sources said. Hurley left to become U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Bessent filing cabinet incident
The frustrations Bessent reported were not limited to senior politicians. Current and former Treasury staff described a tense work environment in which the secretary could lash out at the pace of implementing his agenda or negative media coverage.
One episode reportedly involved something as mundane as organizing his briefing materials, according to The Review:
And his temper flared. He criticized staff for not moving quickly enough to implement his ideas and for failing to combat unfavorable media coverage, some officials said. Last year, Bessent was so angry with the way his daily briefing book was organized that he picked up the binder full of papers and threw it against a wall, sources familiar with the matter said.
Bessent refused the account to The Wall Street Journal.
“A lot of people in the investment community were hoping he was the adult in the room,” said Stephen Myrow, a former Treasury official and managing partner of Beacon Policy Advisors. Investors are “starting to view him as acting more and more like Trump…and that undermines confidence in him.”
Musk, Pulte, and the Treasury Secretary’s Fighting Season
Bessent’s famously combative encounters also reportedly extended to some of the most powerful figures in Trump’s orbit. The Treasury Secretary reportedly reveled in his “tough guy” image and got into an explosive fight with Elon Musk during the administration’s first months in a dispute over the Internal Revenue Service, according to The Review. A few months later, another clash took place, this time involving the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Bill Pulte.
He had to be separated from Elon Musk early in the Trump administration after the two got into a brawl in the West Wing during a disagreement over the Internal Revenue Service. Bessent confronted Trump’s housing chief, Bill Pulte, at a private dinner in September 2025, physically threatening Pulte over allegations that Pulte was undermining him and Trump.
Bessent later shed light on the confrontation with Pulte during an appearance on CNBC.
“Treasury secretaries dating back to Alexander Hamilton “I have a history of dueling,” he joked when asked during a CNBC interview about his spat with Pulte, “”and it turned out a little better on Treasury’s side this time.
Bessent allegedly spit in his own food before leaving a restaurant
Perhaps the weirdest scene in The Journal The report took place not at the Treasury or the White House, but in a Washington restaurant.
Bessent was dining there in December when protesters from the liberal activist group Code Pink began heckling him about the Trump administration’s sanctions policy.
His anger apparently shifted from the protesters to the restaurant itself.
When hecklers from the liberal group Code Pink interrupted the Treasury secretary at a Washington restaurant in December and criticized the Trump administration’s economic sanctions policy, Bessent called them ignorant and lashed out at the restaurant owner for not removing them. According to the owner and also a nearby restaurant, Bessent spat in his own food before leaving.
The Journal The portrait also suggests that Bessent’s combative side extends well beyond internal political struggles and is described in the article as being “thin-skinned” and prone to retreat into “ad hominem attacks” when challenged.
Bessent’s defenders, meanwhile, according to the newspaper, acknowledged that he “can be combative, has character and is demanding with staff,” along with a MAGA ally. Steve Bannon describing his attitude as essentially: “I don’t care about your feelings. If your feelings are hurt, I’m sorry, but get the hell out of here.”
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